My name is Aset and my husband is Emperor. Our fertility journey started before we even knew we were on it! We met our freshman year in college and immediately connected. At the end of our first year, we found out we were pregnant! However, that pregnancy unfortunately ended in a miscarriage. After that loss, we decided to just live our lives as fully as possible.

Now married and in our 30s, we realized that getting pregnant the second time was proving to be a little more difficult. After four years of trying to conceive, I knew it was time to see a specialist but we didn’t have any insurance coverage for infertility testing or procedures, so we just kept trying naturally. Finally, we received some coverage for fertility testing and I had an HSG completed which showed both tubes were blocked. We were devastated!

After that shocking blow, we started to research our options and how we would pay for procedures to get the family we both desired. We started seeing Dr. Beltsos at VIOS Fertility Clinic. She suggested that I have both tubes removed and IVF would be our only option. After researching the cost for IVF, we realized that was the next snag in our family plan… the cost of in vitro is ghastly!

I knew there had to be other options. I began to search for grants to assist us in financing our endeavors. After spending an upwards of $500 collectively on grant applications, we just stopped. We decided to relax ourselves and our minds because we saw the stress and strain it was causing and the amount of tears I shed were enumerable. Then, one day before my 36th birthday, I received an email that changed our lives… we received the Family Building Grant! This was it!! This was our sign that the universe was working with us to grow our family!

We are so grateful for this grant. We begin our IVF journey in January, 2021, and are over the moon with joy! We thank you from the top AND bottom of our hearts for this grant!

Aset and Emperor are recipients of a donated IVF cycle from our Partner Practice, VIOS (Kindbody). In January 2022, they welcomed their baby, Pharoah, to the world!